At best a discussion starter about rudeness, though children may be mildly amused by Bertie’s snide disses.
In this pointed outing, a pig who habitually insults everyone he meets has an epiphany after no one comes to his party. Readers after social or psychological complexity need not apply.
The plot is as simple as it is simplistic of resolution. Having left, as usual, a trail of enraged passersby—“Dreadful hair today, Mrs. Harley!” “Without your annoying husband, Mrs. Block?” “Joseph! Your bad smell never ceases to amaze me!”—on his daily walk, Bertie changes his tune when he meets Ruby, “the cutest rabbit he had ever seen.” Having complimented her ears, he rushes home to plan an elaborate party for her. Devastated when no one responds to his snotty invitations, he goes to bed, dreams of being berated for rudeness by his toothbrush, and remorsefully sends out revised invitations with apologies when he wakes. Mrs. Harley doesn’t come (she “still held a grudge”), but everyone else does, and it’s all a great success. Using a pale but high-contrast palette and surface textures of crayons and thickly brushed watercolors, Boldt fashions busy pastel backdrops for a pink pig with a big red nose. He struts past the all-animal cast to, eventually, a sumptuous party scene centered on pig and bunny making goo-goo eyes as they dance together.
At best a discussion starter about rudeness, though children may be mildly amused by Bertie’s snide disses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4152-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
The boy-and-beetle friendship first introduced in Broach’s charming novel Masterpiece (2010) is now the cornerstone of an illustrated chapter-book series.
James is a boy, and Marvin is a beetle, but with the help of Marvin’s drawing skills, they find a way to communicate. James’ mom worries that her son’s best friend is an insect, but tiny Marvin has the opposite worry—that James will find human friends who supplant him. When James takes off on a beach vacation, Marvin frets even more, but he manages to have a few adventures of his own, like getting trapped inside Mr. Pompaday’s electric pencil sharpener with his beetle cousin Elaine. At first it’s entertaining to frolic among the shavings, but when an unanticipated pencil clogs the exit hole, there’s big trouble. Murphy clearly revels in the Borrowers-style perspective of the beetles’ miniature world: In their under-sink home, Marvin’s drawing table is a die, and a propped-up birthday-cake candle dwarfs the family. The dramatic, blow-by-blow pencil-sharpener incident dominates the story, but it circles back to friendship. James really did miss Marvin after all, and a souvenir seashell (the perfect beetle hideout!) seals the deal. This winsome series debut is both a sweet story of cross-species friendship and a sobering new way to look at pencil sharpeners. (Fantasy. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9190-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl.
In this picture book from singer Parton and co-author Perl, a small French bulldog goes to Nashville, joins a band, fends off bullies, and meets one of the queens of country music.
Promising at the outset that this is just the first of a series of adventures starring her beloved “god-dog,” Parton goes on to hit all the conventional thematic notes. Inspired by musical dreams, Billy heads for Nashville. After a “ruff day” in which being scorned by big dogs for not being a “true muttropolitan” leaves him feeling “lower than a stick on the ground,” he eats some flowers, strums some tunes, forms a band with a trio of little dogs, and, after sending the big pooches packing, trots out a “pawsome” performance at the “Battle of the Bow-Wows.” And from there it’s on to the Grand Ole Opry to hear his big-haired favorite singer warble out lines from her song “Makin’ Fun Ain’t Funny,” about celebrating differences rather than mocking them. Haley slips those lines, along with references to “Jowlene” and “I will pawlways love you,” into painted scenes of an all-dog-or-Dolly cast set against swirls of music and simply drawn backdrops. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593661574
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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